Have the opportunity to intern in Fixed Income AM. Would I be able to recruit for IB LevFin or Direct Lending after?

Currently work in leveraged lending at a BB and decided to go to grad school in order to move geographically (to London) and recruit for IB. Originally, my goal was to work in LevFin/DCM and then try and exit to either fixed income asset management or direct lending. I've been pretty torn on these two paths for a long time and I figured IB would be a good way to keep both options viable.

However, I just received an offer to intern in fixed income for a $90Bn fund within an insurance company prior to my grad program. While i'm excited to potentially skip over IB entirely, I'm concerned I'll be closing off my access to direct lending opps if I pursue this role.

My question is, if I do this fixed income internship and decide its not for me, would IB still be viable during recruiting next cycle (the program has OCR)? Or if I pursue Fixed Income AM full time, is direct lending something that I can lateral to in the future?

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